Carolla: Top podcaster’s boffo following fuels live act

Comedy Impact Report 2012: Online - Adam Carolla

Attempting to explain how his show came to be the most downloaded podcast of all time, Adam Carolla says, “You have to have a voice people want to hear — well, not literally, because mine is annoying, but words they want to hear — and you have to give it to them on a consistent basis.”

Recorded from his personal studio in Glendale, Calif., Carolla’s lively, free-form, five-day-a-week podcast draws an average of 350,000 downloads daily and has become a springboard for a mini Carolla marketing empire with bestselling books and products (his newly released alcohol beverage, Mangria). It also serves as the perfect promotional vehicle for his live shows, which number around 75 per year.

“Adam wasn’t really known as a live performer,” says Mike August, CFO for Carolla Digital. “We started doing onstage live podcasts as a way of monetizing the show, and now he is selling out theaters and casinos all over the country.”

Carolla Digital is also a platform for other programming, including his auto show, “Carcast.” “I would like to have a handful of podcasts under my umbrella, but we’re doing it on a small scale,” says Carolla. “I have no intention of becoming the Les Moonves of podcasting.”